Meeting Recap for Tuesday, September 23, 2014
It was back to biology class for the Rotary Club of Sacramento this week (courtesy of our guest speaker), and THANK GOODNESS there wasn’t a quiz at the end!
Before Dr. Randi Hagerman shared with us the honorable (and incredibly complicated) work being done at Sacramento’s own MIND Institute, the gathered throng of Rotarians did what is not complicated – drink wine (courtesy of Dick Osen) and listen to music (courtesy of Paul [I’m the youngest Rolling] Stone), before President Susan (I bungee jump for money) Sheridan called the meeting to order in her ever-punctual way (the Rotary trains run on time under Prez Susan’s reign).
Rotary’s “Twin Towers” were next, with Past Prez John Frisch introducing our Invocator of the day (David Burke, prospective new member and Seattle transplant who has been tasked with filling the considerable shoes of the recently-retired Don Baird at Fremont Presbyterian), before Sarge-at-Arms, John Lemmon, took care of the introduction chores. After that, President Susan gave a well-deserved recognition to that tireless trio – Bob Daly, Bob Miller, and Lev Kaganovich -- who are the first Rotarians to arrive, and last to leave, as they handle the considerable equipment logistics for every meeting. I’m sure these gents would welcome your help if you’d like to join their crew and share the load on any given meeting.
Our Meeting Sponsor of the Day was Jeff Curcio of the Murphy Austin law firm, who walks the walk, as he’s also chairman of Sponsor of the Day committee this year (for you newer members, the Meeting Sponsor of the Day pays $300 to cover the week’s meeting costs and, in return, gets 3 minutes of mic time during the meeting to promote their business or a favorite charity [as well as additional press later in the week in our favorite rag, The Pulse]). Now I ask you -- how long would it take you to get in front of 250 of the city’s leading business people to tell them about your company? Years, no doubt – unless you do it the easy way and sponsor an upcoming meeting, where you’ll pull it off in about as much time as it takes to cook an egg (so choose easy, and give Jeff a call!).
On the significant event front, Part I of the Club’s major fundraiser this year – the Sacramento Century bike ride -- is about a month away (October 25th), and the SC Committee is off to a great start, having already snagged $22,000 in sponsorships. We have a long way to go to hit our goal (of $50 trillion), however, so you can help in several ways: 1) Send $100 to $1,000 – whatever makes you wince a little – to the Rotary office as a sponsorship donation; 2) Sign up and ride on the 25th (prices range from $25 to $65 depending upon how far you want to ride [be it 20, 30, 60 or 100 miles]– and recruit your riding buddies to join you; 3) Pay $25, don’t ride, and show up for the Oktoberfest celebration on Capitol Mall, with Mumbo Gumbo in concert -- and recruit your drinking buddies to join you; or 4) do any combination above and volunteer for the event. Visit www.sacramentocentury.com for details and registration.
Congratulations to our Theater Night organizer extraordinaire, Tom Chase, for beating his cancer into remission – great to see you at the meeting this week, Tom! Tom announced Jersey Boys sold out in record time and the next opportunity for our "theater buffs" will be It's A Wonderful Life. Contact Tom for date & details.
Oh, and John Swentowsky needs 8 more volunteers for next week’s Loaves & Fishes (4 in the morning, 4 for lunch) – contact John for details.
On the tithing front, while there may be no such thing as bad publicity, when President Susan is around there is such a thing as costly publicity, as Dennis Smith learned the hard way this week, after he showed up in a local publication and on Prez Susan’s radar. Best to fall on your sword and beat Susan to the financial punch, as Kathy Herrfeldt did, outing herself for winning the highest national honor bestowed to a Home Care Assistance franchisee (congratulations, Kathy!).
Great to see Pam Saltenberger back in the Rotary ranks, where she introduced our guest speaker (and her step sister), Dr. Randi Hagerman of the UC Davis MIND Institute (as Pam noted, she and Randi went to school together, but Randi studied while Pam partied). Dr. Hagerman bent many a rotary brain describing her work with the “Fragile X” chromosome, which is the leading cause of autism and aging-related intellectual disabilities. This author paid way too little attention in biology class to enlighten his readership any more on the subject – suffice it to say that Dr. Hagerman and her colleagues are doing wonderful work in trying to cure the debilitating effects of “Fragile X”. Class Dismissed. JBW